Knik Arm Bridge will be useful and used

Those who don't believe so should drive down the beautifully paved road to Point MacKenzie on a nice, clear day and look across the Inlet. What do you see?

You'll see Anchorage, a city with most of the state's population, just waiting for another access route from the Mat-Su Borough. From this perspective, the bridge leads to a population and commerce area just begging for another way in and out.

Construction on the Knik Arm Bridge should start soon and open up the Point MacKenzie area of the Mat-Su Borough for smart development.

There are more reasons for the bridge than simply moving cars around. Just look to Alberta, where the oil and gas industry is booming and industrial centers are ripe with jobs that utilize the natural resources of Canada.

The same situation could happen at Point MacKenzie by making it the terminus of an in-state gas pipeline. The area is void of Anchorage's development and ready to support an industry that would need a bridge to be accessed easily. Personally, I want to characterize Point MacKenzie as the Alberta of the North.

There is currently only one way to get from the Mat-Su to Anchorage and only one way north out of the Anchorage area. For the sake of security, it only makes sense that residents have another option to evacuate both locales for whatever reason.

The old axiom of "history repeats itself" applies to the Knik Arm Bridge. A bridge in Jacksonville, Fla., called the Dames Point Bridge had the same dubious title, a bridge to nowhere. A bit of trivia: This bridge additionally deals with tides and whales, just like the Knik Arm Bridge will.

Built in the 1980s, critics of the bridge, which attached a populated city with a sparsely (at the time) populated area on the other side of the water, said it would only carry 5,000 cars a day at best.

Today, that number exceeds 70,000 cars. As the "Field of Dreams" catch line says, build it and they will come.

The Knik Arm Bridge can be Alaska's Dames Point Bridge. Build it (and develop responsibly) and they will come.

In closing, when has a bridge ever been built that upon completion the people have not loved?

Linda Menard is a Republican state senator from Wasilla.